Articles tagged o13

#globalNOISE is kicking off! A revolutionary coalition of social movements including Occupy, 15M, Real Democracy Now!, #YoSoy132, Blockupy, Strike Debt, and others are taking our collective indignation to the streets. We are banging pots and pans in hundreds of cities around the world in a massive show of global solidarity against debt, austerity, and neoliberal imperialism. Stay tuned for live international updates, but don't just read about it: get banging!

Updated:See here for comprehensive media reports for #GlobalNoise from around the world!

To the financial institutions of the world, we have only one thing to say: we owe you NOTHING!

To our friends, families, our communities, to humanity and to the natural world that makes our lives possible, we owe you everything.

To the people of the world, we say: join the resistance, you have nothing to lose but your debts.

On O13, in the larger context of the worlwide "globalnoise" mobilisation, and within the Global Week of Action against Debt, we will mobilise against debt in several cities of the world: Barcelona, Madrid, Mexico, Paris, New York, Rome…

The governments' response to the financial and economic crisis is the same everywhere: cuts in expenditure and austerity measures under the pretext of reducing deficits and the repayment of a public debt which is the direct outcome of decades of neoliberal policies. The same neoliberal policies that have plungered economic and natural resources and exploited human lifes in Latin America, Asia and Africa for decades, are now also being imposed on the people of Europe and North America.

Governments in the service of finance are using this pretext to further reduce social spending, lower wages and pensions, privatize public utility and goods, dismantle social benefits and deregulate labour laws, and increase taxes on the majority, while social and tax giveaways are generalized for the big companies and the highest income households, the rich, the 1%.

The campaign to subdue the world to public and private debt is a calculated attack on the very possibility of democracy. It is an assault on our homes, our families, our social services and benefits, our communities and on the planet’s fragile eco-systems—all of which are being destroyed by endless production to pay back creditors, who have done nothing to hog the wealth they demand we make for them.

Faced with such coordinated attacks on our social gains, resistance is getting organized around the world, there are national general strikes and the ‘indignados’ movements are increasingly active. In Iceland, the people refused to pay the Icesave debt to the UK and the Netherlands. In Ecuador the people pushed the government into a Debt Audit that saved the country millions of dollars in debt payments. In Argentina, Brasil, Bolivia, Zimbabwe, Mali, Burkina Faso, Indonesia or the Philipines, among many other countries, people have been resisting and oposing debt for decades. In Spain, and in Portugal, from the 15th of september, enormous demonstrations against debt have gathered more than 1 million of people, and a movement of major scale is growing around the surrounding of the Parliament in Madrid to demand a Constituant process.

We from the Occupy / Real Democracy Now / 15M / AntiDebt movement call for public and private debt resistance and repudiation. Debt resistance includes: fighting for free public education, free healthcare, defending foreclosed homes, demanding higher wages and providing mutual aid. But also a first step to build a new economy, based in the principles of equality, solidarity and cooperation, and not greed, acumulation and competition.

In Europe as in Egypt and Tunisia, learning from our colleagues in Latin America, South Saharan Africa and Asia, initiatives for a citizens’ audit of public debt analyze how much of the public debt is illegitimate, odious or unsustainable, and must therefore be cancelled. Paying such creditors means stealing what rightfully belongs to the population and payments will continue to be the cause of college and hospital closures, pensions cuts, and so on and on. And the debt feed the debt.

We Don't Owe, So We Won't Pay! We Are Not a Loan. Bad laws allowed all this debt. Let's rewrite them together

This coming October 12th to 14th, Tokyo is going to host the annual meetings of International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as well as the conferences of Finance Ministers and presidents of central banks from G7/G20 countries. More than ten thousand bureaucrats and officials will gather in several locations including Tokyo International Forum in Marunouchi district. Originally the location of the 2012 meeting was assigned to Cairo, Egypt, but the administration change by the democratizing impetus of the people ousted the plan. Thereafter, Japan’s Ministry of Finance intervened to push the idea of hosting the meeting, with the intention to appeal to the world the nation’s recovery after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Japan’s proposal was accepted. The reality however is that the recovery from the disaster, let alone the ongoing nuclear catastrophe, has made little progress.

The IMF has been demanding European countries the austerity policy, including cut-down of welfare, health care and education budgets in exchange for its financial aid. It is also said that the increase of consumption tax in Japan is in the work, as recommended by the IMF and followed by Ministry of Finance. Having imposed deficit of the burst bubble to the people by way of collecting public funds, Japan’s mega banks are now offering an enormous financing to the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) with a prerequisite to restart nuclear power plants and increase electric prices. Like the bills for the burst bubble, all these bills are to be sent to the people in the form of tax increase. The recommendation of the IMF includes all these schemes. At the same time, the response of IMF to the present European financial crisis is nothing short of imposing deficit derivative of money games by the mega enterprises and banks (the 1%) upon us the 99% by way of the increase of consumption tax and the welfare cut-down.

The global action / GlobalNoise — is called for on October 13th. In Japan we will join with a series of actions protesting against the IMF/WB meetings along with our continuous campaigns concerning varied issues we are facing – including the nuclear industry. Our wish is to establish a solidarity with the peoples of the world, toward realization of a society for us the 99% on the planet.

-International Monetary Fund and the World Bank-
The IMF, one of the United Nations specialized agencies, is consistently recommending an introduction of austerity policy and neoliberal economy to the world in exchange for its financial aids to the countries confronting financial crisis. The World Bank is proposing deregulation, free trade and privatization in exchange for its economic support to the developing countries.

Both of them are known for their undemocratic and opaque managements: their opaque personnel matters (always a European director of the IMF and an American president of the WB) and for the rights of a voice in accordance with the amount of donation (the US first and Japan as the second donor).

GLOBAL DAY OF POTBANGING PROTEST ON OCTOBER 13

A year ago, the world was surprised by the rapid spread of square occupations calling for #GlobalChange. This Saturday we will take the streets again, louder than ever, with a global cacerolazo, casserole, potbanging protest.

The initiative comes from the international networks of Occupy, Indignados, #YoSoy132, and now many grassroots groups and individuals joined: in hundreds of cities around the globe protests are planned. [see below for schedule and info for NYC]

MANY VOICES, ONE STRUGGLE

The focus of the protest is intentionally left open to be filled by local organizers and participants. The result is a turbulent cacophony of issues and slogans: “Don’t owe, won’t pay” in Spain, “Fuck the Troika” in Portugal, a clear message against war from Istanbul, a protest in front of the annual IMF/Worldbank meeting in Tokyo.

One common theme running through all the #GlobalNoise events is the targeting of political and financial elites who are held responsible for destroying our communities and the planet, resonating the ongoing wave of anti-austerity protests in Europe and around the world. At the same time #GlobalNoise is a symbol of hope and unity, building on a wide variety of struggles for global justice and solidarity, assuring that together we will create another world.

SUPPORT #GLOBALNOISE

There are many ways to help with the communication and mobilisation:

International twitter campaign (facebook event) on wednesday October 10, using the hashtags #GlobalNoise and #13O

And then there is an initiative from Montreal, Quebec, called VIA22 which is a global day of action planned for October 22 and continuing to occur on the 22nd of every month. The idea of VIA22 is to take potbanging to the next level by expressing the need that our marches and demonstrations become spaces for sharing knowledge about alternatives.

NYC SCHEDULE & INFO

October 12

7:30 pm
Meet at Judson Memorial Church (55 Washington Square South) for an action spokes-council to coordinate with the many groups participating in the call for #globalNOISE on October 13th. Bring your action ideas or plans for sharing and coordination.

October 13

4:00 pm
Gather at Occupy Town Square in Central Park, just inside the main entrance at Columbus Circle. No tables, bring a sheet, blanket, or just gather on the grass for teach-ins, discussions, trainings using the Open Space format.

6:00 pm
Converge at Columbus Circle, with Strike Debt, for an assembly, followed by a casserole march (in solidarity with the international call to bang pots and pans and make “globalNOISE”). Bring pots and pans, noise makers, to share!